Batgirl: The Attack of the Annihilator
| Creators = Cary Burkett; Jose Delbo; Joe Giella; Carl Gafford; Tom Ziuko; John Costanza; Milt Snapinn; Dick Giordano; Dave Manak | First = Detective Comics Vol 1 508 | Last = Detective Comics Vol 1 510 | Quotation = My cousin, Superman, told me he was going on a dangerous space-mission with the JLA. I suspect that the Batman is with him! And since that's the case, I'm not leaving Gotham until the Annihilator is safely disposed of! I owe you that much for saving me from him! | Speaker = Supergirl | QuoteSource = Detective Comics Vol 1 509 | HistoryText = Batgirl is getting her Batcycle repaired by her friend Jeff Corton after her latest battle against Doctor Voodoo. Batgirl is worried about their friendship putting Jeff in risk and states they have to develop a more secure way for Batgirl to slip in and out unseen. Nonetheless, she has to leave to work on the speech she is scheduled to make tomorrow. The next day, as Barbara Gordon delivers a speech on the need of a better prison reform program, a geologist called Kenneth Anderson is working in his lab. Anderson feels slighted because nobody has paid attention to his discovery of a strange space rock glowing with a unique kind of energy. Anderson theorizes that rock contains enough energy to supply the whole country, so he conducts an experiment to unlock its power. He succeeds in releasing a tiny fraction of stone's power, but the energies unleashed start mutating him. Meanwhile, Barbara has finished her speech and returned to the offices of Humanities Research and Development. Barbara is watching Linda Danvers being interviewed live when a news report interrupts the talk show: the Hinchcliff labs in downtown Gotham City are being attacked by a glowing, flying humanoid. Barbara quickly goes to suit up. Batgirl swings her way to the place and finds Anderson, who now calls himself the Annihilator, throwing energy blasts at the building. The power's stone transformed and super-charged his body, and now he wants to punish those who didn't take him seriously. Batgirl manages to lasso his right foot and slam him into a rooftop, but Annihilator swiftly blasts her down. Batgirl falls down, but she's caught by Supergirl. Kara confesses she was doing a talk show appearance as Linda Danvers on Gotham but she slipped away when she heard the news report. Supergirl lands Batgirl on a nearby rooftop and streaks towards the Annihilator. Annihilator feels Supergirl's power is greater than his, and he quickly grabs her and starts absorbing her power. Batgirl watches her friend being drained and rendered senseless, as wondering how she can take down now he has stolen Supergirl's powers and powered-up his energy blasts. Then she notices his scratched hand and his sweaty face and deduces he's only absorbing Supergirl's energies. Swiftly she throws a tear-gas capsule to distract his attention, swoops down and snatches Supergirl away from him. Annihilator streaks after Batgirl and tries to blast her down. Batgirl struggles to dodge his blasts until she realizes she can shield herself with Supergirl's invulnerable body. Annihilator's energy blasts accidentally revive Supergirl. Batgirl warns her friend she must avoid his energy-draining touch, so Supergirl resorts to her heat beams. Annihilator manipulates the air molecules to form a shield that reflects Supergirl's beams back at her, but suddenly his body starts to mutate further, and Annihilator decides to teleport away. Supergirl's super-vision confirms he has disappeared with no trace. Batgirl wonders why Batman hasn't appeared yet, and Supergirl reveals her cousin has gone on a mission with the JLA, so Batman must be with them. Hence, it's up to them save Gotham. Before they get going, though, Barbara asks Linda to build a secret exit tunnel in her friend Jeff Cotton's service station so she can come and go secretely. Supergirl quickly carves out an underground passageway as well as a secret basement to keep her Batcycle. Meanwhile, the Annihilator is studying his new changes. His first mutation affected his mind and drove him into a rage. His growing mental powers are changing him again, and now he wishes to rebuild Gotham after destroying it, repopulating it with a race of super-beings fathered by him. He starts building a ray gun powered by his energy stone, intending to use it on the woman he will choose to deliver his offspring. In the meantime, Supergirl and Batgirl try to come up with a plan to defeat him. Batgirl remembers she has seen the v-shaped design on his lab coat before. Batgirl figures out it's Vesper Research Laboratories' logo, and Supergirl and Batgirl head out, hoping to catch Annihilator off guard. Unfortunately, Annihilator's precognitive powers warn him that both heroines are on their way. He waits for them, positioned at a window and intending to use his newly-completed ray on non-invulnerable Batgirl. Supergirl and Batgirl are nearing Vesper Laboratories when Supergirl scans the building and warns her partner in time for her to avoid the Annihilator's shot. Supergirl grabs Batgirl and flies into the building. Both women try to talk the Annihilator into letting them help him reverse his mutation, but he refuses and blasts Supergirl through the wall and across the city with a psychic blast. His energy blast starts a fire, and Annihilator decides to exploit it to burn the building down. He fuels the fires psychically and vanishes. Batgirl is trying to put the fire out unsuccessfully when Supergirl returns. As Supergirl extinguishes the fire, Batgirl heads off to find the Annihilator. Batgirl finds him quickly and notices his body has evolved again. As she simultaneously avoids his energy gunshots and attempts to knock him out, Batgirl learns he wants to turn her into another mutant and make her his mate. Batgirl punches him away but he manages to hold her still telepathically. Annihilator fires at her, but Supergirl swoops down suddenly and blocks the shot. Then she rushes to build a prison around Annihilator, using a nearby pile of bricks. Nevertheless, Annihilator bursts out of the wall and drains Supergirl's energies from a safe distance. Supergirl faints, but Batgirl has come up with a way to defeat him. Barbara blows a fire hydrant open, and the jet stream gets Annihilator drenched and slammed into a wall. As the villain regains his bearings, Batgirl gets Supergirl to come around and asks her to freeze-breath him. Supergirl's cold blast hits the Annihilator, who gradually reverts back to normal and passes out. Supergirl asks Batgirl how she could guess coldness would change him back, and Batgirl explains she remembered his body changed every time he was exposed to great heat, so she guessed heat triggers his mutation and maybe intense cold would revert it. Kara praises her friend and leaves Barbara with Kenneth Anderson, both heroines agreeing that they'll have to work together again before long. | Issues = * (The Attack of the Annihilator!) * (The Fires of Destruction!) * (Bride of Destruction!) | Items = * Batrope * Utility Belt | Vehicles = * Batcycle | Weapons = * Batarang | Notes = * "The Attack of the Annihilator" features a special thanks to Wendy Beraud, who provided plot assists. | Trivia = * Supergirl being a soap opera actress places this story's events after . * Supergirl and Batgirl share their secret identities in this story for the first time since (September, 1967). * Supergirl builds for Batgirl a secret exit tunnel similar to the one which she and Superman used during their childhoods in Midvale and Smallville, respectively. * Although Supergirl and Batgirl agree on working together more often, this story arc was the last time both characters teamed up before the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Their next meeting on panel happened in -mirrored in - after Barbara Gordon quit her secret identity. Kara Zor-El and Barbara Gordon would team up again in (January, 2009), written during Barbara's time as Oracle. Finally, both heroines would star in a bona fide Supergirl/Bargirl team-up in the 2017 story arc Escape from the Phantom Zone. * Annihilator is remarkably similar to Barry Metzner, another large-headed, spindly-limbed psychic mutant villain whom Supergirl would fight two years later. | RecommendedReading = | Links = }}